After Rick Reed survived for six innings in his first start coming off the disabled list, pitching coach Bob Apodaca said if someone had told him beforehand that the right-hander would last that long, he would have compared it to winning the lottery.

Yesterday was like losing the ticket.

In another in a series of bafflingly ugly starting performances by the Mets, Reed had one of the worst starts of his career, giving up eight runs on seven hits in just 12/3 innings. By the time he had registered his first out of the game, the Diamondbacks had already scored three times on their way to an 11-6 victory

When asked to put in words how he performed, Reed said he could do it in the following two words: “I [stink].”

That explanation was almost as brief as Reed’s entire outing yesterday, an outing which runs so contrary to his body of work over the past two years, that it might as well just be forgotten.

“You can’t learn from that,” Reed said. “It was just a [bad] day.”

Reed has been in the majors for parts of 10 seasons and has made 108 starts, but this was arguably the worst because it was the only time he had given up eight runs in one game, and it matched the shortest start of his career.

Three times last year he gave up seven runs, including one complete stinker in his second outing of the year. It was on a cold, rainy day in Chicago when he gave up seven runs on 10 hits in 32/3 innings.

“It was raining and cold and we didn’t think we were going to play,” he recalled. “It was bad. This was the same [bleep], except it was warm. Right after that [start], I started to pitch pretty good.”

Indeed, Reed went 8-2 following that game, so maybe there is something positive to be taken from yesterday. As for why he pitched so incredibly poorly, Reed said it was because he couldn’t get his pitches down. They were all up in the strike zone, prime for launching.

That includes the leadoff single to Tony Womack, the ground rule double to Jay Bell that followed it, and the three-run home run to Luis Gonzalez which made it 3-0 after the first three batters. After that it was an ugly mess as the Diamondbacks capped the three-game series having scored 27 runs, tying a franchise record for a series.

Reed left the game with one out in the second, two runners on base and the score already 6-0. Rigo Beltran came in and the first batter he faced, Steve Finley, swatted a three-run home run to right field.

“I felt great,” he said. “You might look at the scoreboard and say I’m full of [bleep], but it was the best I’ve felt all year.”

That may sound upside down, but right now everything seems upside down for the Mets, who have won only once in the past five games following a six-game winning streak. The starting pitching has been totally upside down as Masato Yoshii has suddenly emerged as their hottest performer.

And despite banging out a season-high 16 hits with three home runs – two of them coming in their last-gasp three-run ninth – they never had a shot in this game. The most notable offensive production came from Mike Piazza, who went 3-for-4 with a solo home run. It was his first multi-hit game since coming off the disabled list and only his second extra base hit since his famous home run beat the Padres April 28.

“It’s been tough here for us the past few games,” Piazza said, “but I think this is where the good teams hold it together and come out of it stronger.”

That won’t be easy for the pitchers as the Mets now play the Rockies in the thin, unforgiving air of Denver’s Coors Field. It will be up to the inconsistent Al Leiter, Bobby Jones – whose ERA at Coors is 7.91 – and Orel Hershiser to stop this onslaught.

Hershiser contributed to the Diamondbacks offensive surge by giving up nine runs on Friday night, but even that start had a few better aspects to it than Reed’s did.

“I’ve seen it before with every other pitcher,” Bobby Valentine said. “I’d rather turn the page and get on with it.”